More and more college basketball programs are making midseason moves to strengthen rosters.
Some of these signings look to be moves for the sake of adding depth. Others seem to be swings at players with real upside as starters. Either way, the practice has generated plenty of controversy around the sport, which has absorbed several changes in the past few years.
But, no matter how you feel about it, it’s evidently within the rules now. Meaning staffs can either adapt and leverage all possible avenues for teambuilding or not do that and watch other teams improve. That’s not to say every team should, probably only those that need to.
Indiana’s new staff, led by head coach Darian DeVries, did what it could to build a cohesive roster through the transfer portal this past offseason. There were a few international additions in Aleksa Ristic and Andrej Acimovic, but those moves were more for the sake of depth and/or long-term concerns.
With Indiana having gone through the non-conference slate, it’s clear this roster has a few holes. It’s not an outright bad group and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but there’s areas of weakness on the roster that could do for some patching. There’s room for it, Indiana has two open scholarship spots just in case. And there’s certainly options in the NBA G-League or the international ranks.
Here’s where the Hoosiers could use some help:
There’s no sugarcoating it: Indiana’s center rotation hasn’t been good enough.
Both of Reed Bailey and Sam Alexis have had productive nights at the five, but neither has shown enough consistent scoring or rebounding to play against the Big Ten’s best this winter. The staff has already moved to insert Alexis in the starting lineup over Bailey, but that’s only proven so effective.
Those two also make up the entirety of Indiana’s true frontcourt rotation. Tucker DeVries, starting at power forward, plays more like a wing. Trent Sisley plays more like a true power forward, but comes off the bench as a true freshman. Indiana’s other options are Acimovic, who needs time to develop into a role, and the injured Josh Harris, who performed well at North Florida but feels like another piece for the future rather than an answer as a starter.
Indiana could use a bigger, more physical option to rebound the basketball and maybe offer ten points a night more consistently than Bailey and Alexis, who’ve struggled some against high-major competition. Added rim protection wouldn’t hurt either.
This would be significantly less of a priority than the frontcourt.
Indiana’s starters in the backcourt are mostly fine, but anything to get a bit more scoring and rim pressure would be welcome. It’s hard to gauge the depth since Jason Drake hasn’t been available, but Ristic’s minutes have been sparse and less than reliable when they’ve come.
If Indiana could only make one addition, it should come in the frontcourt. But another guy who can get downhill wouldn’t hurt.